She didn't seem to even notice the paw on her head as she was pushed away. Her claws were going in and out of her paws, stretching to their limits before pulling back in and her paw would curl. Her eyes were glancing everywhere and her breathing was heavier. Her tail twitched unconsciously and she continued to make strange noises as she tried to speak.

"Ȁ̸ͅn̸͚̎g̷͖͊r̶̙̈y̶͚̔y̵̞̓y̴̩̆y̴̡̿.....n̵͕̅o̸̧̊o̴̢̐o̵̼͌ō̸̥o̴̮͘....w̵͕̉a̴̢̛n̸̥͑t̸̳͊ ̶̬͂t̶̹͘o̸͓̐ ̴͎͌k̶̰̒n̷̢̅o̴̫̚ẁ̸̱w̴̨͒w̷̭̃...." She panted, her fur bristling irregularly. At the mention of the Spire she hissed again, her ears going flat but her eyes showed no anger. Instead, her tail curled down as if she were terrified and she took a step back, crouching low. "B̶u̷t̸...̷T̸h̷e̷ ̷S̷p̷i̷r̸e̸..." She paused and shook out her head, the movement slow and meticulous. She got back to her feet and crawled up on the dog again, this time her claws holding fast to his skin.

"M̴̨̨͈̟̒̈́̽a̷̡͉͍̳̣̿́̅͝g̷͓͋ì̷̱̪́͑́c̶̗̩̫̙͛̈̓͛...s̴̤͝ĥ̵͈ő̴̦w̸̹̌w̵̟̒w̶͙̆ẁ̶̼ ̷̲̂m̴̘̑e̶͙̕e̶̛̬e̴͎̓e̵̬̒..."

@Black

He reached down fairly sharply as the kitten stepped forward. He wasn't sure what was wrong with her, but it was something, and he most definitely did not want to get scratched up or--worse--for the cat to hurt herself. He reached down, trying to pick her up by the scruff in his jaws for a moment, at least until she stopped behaving-... oddly.

The Spire had, most definitely, affected her the way it had damaged Many. He still wasn't sure if Many's mind would recover, but he hoped that the kitten's would not remain so warped.

If he did manage to pick her up he would simply hold her there, uncertainly, until she showed signs of being--not... like this.

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@Wilder

As the dog leaned down to pick her up, the sharp teeth pricked at her fur and she cried out loudly. Her fur bushed and she bolted. Not very far, though, as she ended up running straight into a rock. She barely managed to stop herself in time as she barelled into it and bounced away, reeling from hitting her head.

But she was still focused on Black Dog. She turned herself around, even though the world was spinning, and ended up sitting herself down to at least keep herself from falling. "W-whyy...." her voice was clearer now, although she still retained that distant look in her eyes. "I just want to knoww..."

@Black

The black dog had done many things in his life and had, generally, done them well. Picking up a kitten was not among the most difficult, and yet somehow he found himself with a faceful of rock as the feline bolted, sneezing an instant before she crashed into a stone. He blinked and quickly paced over, concerned.

"I intended to lift--not to harm. Your claws were out, kitten. The fur was up. And your voice had changed." He sniffed at her, worried that she was harmed, and then dropped again onto his haunches. "There was another, near the Spire, who could not think after it harmed him. He thought I was a tiger. I am not a tiger." It was the second time in a matter of days that he was explaining that he was not a tiger, but she was very young, and perhaps would not know.

"Ask me what you wish, and I will answer; but you must retain control. Are you harmed?"

He was very worried that she was, and possibly because of him. He did not want that. He also had no idea what to do if it were true. He had no mending magic, no ability to heal, not that he knew of. He did have that one thing that he had learned, a shape of magic he did not know the purpose of. Perhaps it was to mend.

He called upon it, briefly, but nothing happened; and, dissatisfied and concerned, he looked back to Wilder. Worry was in his eyes. And in all of his wrinkles, too, or so it seemed.

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@Wilder

The kitten stared up at the dog with concern. Had she really been like that? To her, she had been speaking fine, she had been in complete control. She bowed her head shamefully. "S-sorry...I didn't mean to scare." Her head was pounding - from the trance or from her faceful of rock she didn't know, but she rubbed at it with a paw nonetheless. "I am...okay?" She shook her head out, but that didn't do anything to alleviate the pain.

She settled herself down, facing Black Dog, feeling more in control. It was weird before, like she was in the midst of falling asleep. Her whiskers twitched with interest as she remembered the questions she had. "I want to see something! Can you use m-" she tried to say the word but it was like there was a barrier there with that strange, sleepy feeling just beyond. "M...m-ma..." she sighed and stopped trying. "The thing. You know, you mentioned it before? When you were saying there were trees and lights and stuff?" She had no idea why it was so difficult for her to say the word "magic" but even thinking about it made her head spin. But it was interesting, so very interesting to her, she had to know!

@Black

Black stared, rather bewilderedly. For a moment he was about to ask, 'magic?' but then remembered that the last time he had said it, the kitten had been triggered into some sort of fit. He did not want to repeat that, if he could.

"It is not your fault. It is the Spire. And yes, I will." He paused, concentrating for a moment on his magicka--not that it so often answered him. For a moment he was tempted to call upon shadows, to create a display for the little one to watch; but it occurred to him that she might be hungry. The bananas, he knew, even he could eat, and enjoy. They were not meat and they were not fish, and they were not nuts like those that cats surely ate, but they were magical.

The black dog lifted his paw, after a moment; beneath it was a small banana. It was--very small, but then, so was the kitten, and so he was not too worried about this near-failure. He nudged it over to her, with his nose, and spoke.

"If you pull it open, you can perhaps find food inside."
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@Wilder

She was a little nervous that a display of magic would trigger another fit, but when the banana appeared beneath Black Dog's nose, she didn't feel anything. Except a rumbling in her stomach that gave her a much different message. It said food! eat! So, without hesitation, Wilder pounced on the banana.

She used a claw to carve the banana open and found a wonderfully mushy thing underneath that she began to lick and chew. Oh, it was delicious! Sweet and soft in her mouth! She made pretty gross noises as she stuffed as much banana into her mouth as she could before looking up at Black, a bit of banana spilling from her muzzle. She let out a garbling noise behind her eating and then realized that he probably wouldn't be able to understand her. So she quickly swallowed as much as she could so she could speak. "Thank you, Black Dog!"

She had a few more bites of banana, which took enough time for the magic to cause her fur to start sparkling, before she remembered that this had come from the magic that she couldn't even speak about. She wanted to try it too so she closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt something stirring underneath it all and she happened to take a bite of banana just as it activated. It all flashed before her eyes very quickly. The banana coming into existance and the sudden cutting and devouring by a certain kitten with pink eyes.

She stepped back a little confused. She looked up at Black Dog in case he had an answer. "I just saw a thing. I touched the banana and then I saw myself FROM the banana. Was that...could it be..." The faraway look crossed across her eyes again. "M̶a̴g̸i̴c̷?" But the fit that had overcome her once didn't come back. Instead, she began consciously wagging her tail again to show her excitement. "Hey! Hey! Did I do it? The thing?"

@Black

The black dog tilted his head.

He could see something strange, something-... off, but she did not begin to bristle, this time--and spoke further. So he simply answered. So far as he could tell, she had used a magic that he had used, in the past, and he dipped his head in acknowledgement.

"I see things with magic, at times, when I touch a thing. Perhaps you have done the thing," he agreed, voice rumbling kindly. "There are many magics. I do not know them all. I know that some can create light. Some make shadow. Some can grow plants." He paused. He was, in order, thinking of Eve, of himself, and of Oliver--Eve being the crow he had made children with, Oliver one of the sons. But past that..? What other magic was there? He knew that the Seer in Canis saw things in bones; and he did remember the white dragon nearly killing itself with... what had it been? White fire? "I have seen those that can make white fire, and there are those who can see truths in many things," he settled for, at last.

Now he chose to show the shadows, focusing on them, for a moment. When he concentrated, he fully expected them to manifest around him--but they did not, and he turned his gaze to the kitten, again, with this lesson. "It does not always happen. Perhaps there is an outside force. Try it again--what do you see of me." And here he extended one massive paw, settling it softly on the ground before Wilder, as if offering it for her magic to test.

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@Wilder

The kitten's mouth gaped with awe. She had really done magic! The word held such a strange meaning. It meant so much to her for whatever reason. It had such a powerful effect on her and while she was terrified of what it would do to her she was also intrigued. So she focused again and this time was a little more aware of it. It came on stronger this time and she was a little taken aback. A ripple went down her spine and her eyes flashed.

T̵̯̀h̵̺̽i̵͎͒s̸̲̉ ̸̭̑i̶̼̎s̵̳͝ ̸͓̄m̴̝̾a̶̼̕g̶͈͂ì̶̥c̷̯̕...

No, she had to keep it in control. She was going to touch the dog's paw, right? She was going to see things about him! Just like she had done with the banana! That would be cool!

She stepped forward and stretched her neck forward, touching her soft nose against the side of his paw, closing her eyes, hoping that would make it easier to see.

@Black

The dog held quite still, lest the kitten panic and hurt herself again. Instead, as she touched his paw, he did not move a muscle, even barely breathing for her sake.

There were many things in his past--many things that she might see. He was, so far as the caves went, an older Gembound--he had been alive and awake for a few years, now.

He had been born in an icy tunnel. A brown wolf had been there. Then had come the black lake of Cetus, the three-hundred-foot blue sea beast with its yellow lamp eyes and yellow fins hurtling forth like a storm to entrap those on the shore. And again there had been Raheerah, the great black dragon which bathed Polaris in flame as he perched atop the Spire. The white dragon, furred, that had tried to fight him, only to destroy itself nearly completely with its blast of white fire. The time he and Fisher had fought that same white dragon, in the close confines of a tunnel, as it tried to kill another cat they were protecting. A cat he had taken back to Cetus, hid beneath the roots of a tree. A tree he had hidden beneath when the white dragon came, mewling its wretchedly meaningless apologies, too selfish and too self-centered to grasp that its attacks were not so easily forgiven. There were, too, times the caves had been dark--the lights gone out. There was the white wolf who had brought them back--Kera. There was a white feathered dog, one almost like the wolf, glowing with light--and a black feathered dog, too, kindly blue-eyed, like Black. And among them the black crow, so tiny, with her collections of baubles.

There was the furless cat Senka, a throne of stone in the near-dark, a cat made of storms, a hyena amongst her bones; there was the brown fisher again, and a bird with black beards alongside its beak, and a jungle filled with plants. There were dozens of Gembound surrounding a furious red stag. There was a room of black, a great serpent coiled at one side, two statues twinned by an ancient and dust-covered stairwell. There were the quartz stars glinting in Orion's roof.

He had seen so much; what of this, he wondered, would Wilder see?

Patiently he waited.

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@Wilder